FlightCommanderSolitude
SOC-13
So I'm thinking of doing a little modelling project and was taking a closer look at the old Type S deckplans in Supp 7: Traders and Gunboats. I've always eyed them with some suspicion, as it seemed like the upper and lower decks would be somewhat cramped owing to the wedge shape of the vessel.
The Scout/Courier is listed as being 7.5m tall at its highest point; if we make the main deck 3m high (the value given in the book), and make the other decks each just 2m high, we've used up 7m!
I did a Sketchup model of the hull, and a model of the decks, and then tried to fit the decks into the hull. It's ridiculous! It's like trying to put a stapler in an ice cream cone: it just ain't going in there. The upper gallery is more like a very abbreviated attic, and the forward cargo bay is essentially outside the ship!
I know people have complained about this before, but I'd never sat down and worked it all out to see how broken the deckplan is. The question now is, can anything in the design be changed or shuffled around so that the "spirit" of the deckplan is workable?
It seems like you could move the forward cargo bay to the rear, replace the upper gallery with another cargo bay like the first one, and perhaps expand the common area out to the sides a bit. Perhaps squashing the deck heights (to just over 2m everywhere but the rear areas, say) and allowing some of the interior spaces to deform the hull shape so it wasn't a pure wedge anymore, might also help things a bit.
Anyone have any comments or ideas?
The Scout/Courier is listed as being 7.5m tall at its highest point; if we make the main deck 3m high (the value given in the book), and make the other decks each just 2m high, we've used up 7m!
I did a Sketchup model of the hull, and a model of the decks, and then tried to fit the decks into the hull. It's ridiculous! It's like trying to put a stapler in an ice cream cone: it just ain't going in there. The upper gallery is more like a very abbreviated attic, and the forward cargo bay is essentially outside the ship!
I know people have complained about this before, but I'd never sat down and worked it all out to see how broken the deckplan is. The question now is, can anything in the design be changed or shuffled around so that the "spirit" of the deckplan is workable?
It seems like you could move the forward cargo bay to the rear, replace the upper gallery with another cargo bay like the first one, and perhaps expand the common area out to the sides a bit. Perhaps squashing the deck heights (to just over 2m everywhere but the rear areas, say) and allowing some of the interior spaces to deform the hull shape so it wasn't a pure wedge anymore, might also help things a bit.
Anyone have any comments or ideas?